Curiosity Is Not a Sin

Family Secrets

"That's okay, they could use it. I'm too bony there, anyway."

Scorpius opened his mouth, paused, and repeated, "What is the Marauder's Map?"

Rose had a feeling that that was not what he had initially been planning to say, but she couldn't exactly call him on it with Albus sitting there. "It's a map of Hogwarts."

He frowned and leaned over to look at it closer. He had apparently been too surprised by the lines appearing on the yellowed parchment to process what those lines were. "Huh." His eyes widened, and he pointed to a classroom. "Is that..."

Rose leaned over. "Yes, that's us."

"What is this?" he asked again, sounding a little more awestruck than he had before.

"It's the Marauder's Map," Rose repeated. Albus cleared his throat. "Oh, fine, have it your way," she said. "It's a map of Hogwarts. It shows everyone and everything in the castle."

"Well, except for the Chamber of Secrets."

Scorpius stared at him. "That's an actual thing? I mean, it's real?"

"Yep. My dad told us about it last New Year's," Rose said. You could always manage to convince her father or her aunt to start telling interesting stories about their time at Hogwarts once they'd had enough to drink, and since it didn't happen very often, she, Hugo, and her cousins tried to take full advantage of it when it did. "Apparently it was built to house the basilisk your house founder left in the school."

Scorpius jerked his head around, as if expecting a basilisk to be lurking in the corner of the room. "A basilisk?"

"It's dead now," Albus said quickly. "My father killed it in his second year."

Scorpius's eyebrows looked as though they were in dangerous of disappearing into his hairline. "Your father killed a basilisk in his second year?" After a moment, he relaxed. "Very funny. You had me going for a minute."

"I'm not joking. My mother almost died."

"My mum got petrified," Rose offered. Her father had been very forthcoming indeed that New Year's, particularly when Rose's mother, aunt, and uncle left the room.

Scorpius stared at them. "You're serious."

"Yes," Albus agreed.

"So, wait a minute. There was a basilisk attaching people while our parents were here?"

Rose studied his face. It seemed to really be the first time he was hearing about it. "Yes," she said. "You didn't know that?"

Scorpius shook his head. "You've have definitely gotten more interesting stories about Hogwarts from your parents than I have from mine. The most exciting thing my father's told me is that he got mauled by a hippogriff because he was being an ass."

"That's what he said?" Rose asked skeptically.

"Yeah. It was part of his 'if you're going to take Care of Magical Creatures, pay attention in it' lecture." Scorpius managed a smile. "I get the feeling that most of his memorable times at Hogwarts don't exactly fill him with pride."

Albus looked at Rose. "Is the room of requirement on there? I never checked." It was a rather transparent attempt to make his friend feel less uncomfortable, but she went along with it.

"No." Albus didn't tend to use the map - or the cloak, for that matter - very often; as a student whose rule-breaking was typically limited to occasionally sneaking down to the kitchens at night and using skiving snackboxes, he didn't have much need for either of them.